This invention relates to a product conveyor construction for receiving, transporting and simultaneously forming a product contained in a slack-filled casing.
A food packaging apparatus of the type for filling a casing with a viscous food product wherein the opposite ends of the casing are sealed is depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,945, incorporated herewith by reference. Apparatus of this general nature have the capability of providing slack-fill or loose-fill casings. For example, when a sausage product comprised of fine cuts of meat is pumped into a casing and the ends of the casing are sealed with a metal clip, for example, it is not unusual to only partially fill the casing with the viscous or flowable sausage product. Thereafter, the casing and its contents are shaped or formed in special forming devices to provide a commercially appealing product form. Pat. No. 4,675,945 discloses a type of apparatus which may be used for the filling of such casing and for imparting a slack-fill portion to the casing. U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,567 discloses a device which may be used in such a filling operation to adjust the tail or length of the slack-filled portion of such casing material. U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,234 discloses a packaging system in which both the casing film as well as netting material is placed on or about a viscous food product. The product may then be shaped or formed in a desired fashion and subsequently processed, for example, by smoking, cooking or the like.
Heretofore, individual units of filled casing material have been shaped by various means. For example, such individual units may be shaped in molds or by hand and then transported for further processing. It has been suggested that conveyors can be modified so as to somehow effect an appropriate shape to a slack-filled casing product. There has remained, however, the need for an improved conveyor mechanism which is capable of forming a slack-filled casing product.